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Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Will Increased Sewer Fees Help the Indian River Lagoon or Jeopardize Brevard School Tax?

The Banana River
with NASA's Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center in the
background. Brevard Times / File photo.

UPDATE: The County Commission voted 4 to 1 to increase the stormwater fee from $36 to $52 for the next two years, followed by an increase to $64 in the third year. A proposal to raise the minimum stormwater fee to $5 did not pass. Commissioner Trudie Infantini was the sole no vote.

VIERA, Florida -- On the Brevard County Commission Agenda at 5:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 3, is a proposal to raise the stormwater fee assessed on properties in Brevard County from $36 to $64.

The proposed sewer fee increase comes during the same year when there is also a proposal to increase fire fees. Later in 2014, voters will decide in November whether to add a half-cent sales tax for schools.

"Should we build a
tourist welcome center at a cost of $3,000,000; pay the Washington
Nationals $29,000,000 to stay; pay $6,500,000 toward the construction of
a shopping mall/office building/movie theater or spend the money to
reduce runoff to the lagoon?" Brevard County Commissioner Trudie
Infantini wrote in an email. "Prioritization is the problem in my
opinion. So I will NOT support taxing individuals more when we, as a
Board, cannot prioritize the spending of funds we already have."

In a memo to Brevard County Commissioners, County Manager Howard Tipton wrote:

"Should the Board approve the proposed increase, these funds will be applied toward efforts to restore the Indian River Lagoon. These funds will be applied using proven technologies and programs to provide results by reducing future pollution, removing existing pollution and sources of much; and restoring the ecosystem; all of which will be guided by the best available research."

"It
was more surprising that the event even happened at all given the
long-term drought conditions during the 2009 – 2011 period [and the]
decreasing trend in treated wastewater discharges... drought means
comparatively little rainfall-runoff...The other major external sources –
atmospheric and groundwater – are similarly affected by rainfall and
would be diminished during the same period. Therefore; notwithstanding
some unreported nutrient-laden discharge, an internal flux of nutrients
may be the primary mechanism that fueled the bloom. "(Emphasis added).

Background:

Two
events marked the decimation of the Lagoon's environment. First, there
was the loss of over 60% of seagrass coverage from 2009 through 2012.
Second, there was the Indian River Lagoon Algae Superbloom that lasted
from April 2011 through March 2012. Both events were extraordinary
because no events of that scale had ever been recorded in the Lagoon's
history. Those
extraordinary events were followed by an unusually high number of
manatee deaths beginning in 2012 and continuing throughout 2013.
Unusually high dolphin and pelican deaths were also recorded during
2013.
Despite
those events being historically extraordinary statistical outliers,
many environmentalists blamed the Lagoon's demise on causes that have
otherwise remained constant (or even dropped) such as fertilizers,
sewage, muck, grass clippings, runoff, pet waste, and even global
warming.

But
the strongest evidence against those particular human-related common
causes was the geographical location of the start of the Superbloom in
the northernmost portion of the Banana River that is bordered by sparse
populations because the Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral Air Force
Station, Canaveral National Seashore, and the Merritt Island National
Wildlife Refuge make up most of that area's landmass as shown in the above graphic.

In fact, a 2003 scientific research paper titled Impacts of Reduced Salinity on Seagrasses in Indian River Lagoon published in the Journal of Phycology, an International Journal of Algal Research, stated that the northern Banana River is "an area of IRL considered the least anthropogenically impacted." That's scientific jargon meaning that humans have little impact on that area of the Indian River Lagoon.

As
the above graphic shows, there appears to be an inverse relationship
with the manatee population counts and seagrass acreage whenever the
manatee count exceeds around 1,700 on Florida's East Coast (the Florida
Fish and Wildlife Commission cautions that the published manatee survey
count provides a minimum count of manatees, but it does not provide an accurate population estimate).

According to a research study performed by the University of Florida and the U.S. Geological Survey in 2012, the record-breaking manatee
population has grown so much in the last decade that they may be reclassified by wildlife management
officials from endangered to threatened.

An
800 to 1,200 pound adult sea cow can eat up 10% to 15% of its body
weight daily in aquatic vegetation which mostly consists of seagrass. According to a U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Manatee Recovery Plan, manatees sometime graze on seagrass which leaves the possibility for regrowth - but manatees
also "root" seagrass - meaning the entire plant is pulled and the
underwater sediment is disturbed. Based on those consumption rates, an
average manatee can consume and/or destroy around 3 acres of seagrass a
year, depending on the density of the seagrass per acre.

Has a population rebound of an endangered species ever caused a collapse in seagrass beds before?

It is likely that
the removal of the photosynthetic potential of leaves
by grazing sea turtles decreased the production and
storage of photosynthate in the seagrasses, slowing
their growth and reducing the ability of the seagrasses
to recover from unfavorable environmental conditions.
This makes the effects on seagrasses of the grazing by
sea turtles similar to the effects of severe light reduction. (Emphasis added).

Could manatees have consumed all the seagrass that disappeared from 2009-2011?

Even
if 2,000 manatees consumed and/or destroyed 3 acres of seagrass per
year, that would only amount to 18,000 acres of seagrass (2000 manatees x
3 acres x 3 years). So manatee consumption alone would not have
accounted for the total loss of approximately 30,000 acres of seagrass
during 2009-2011. Additionally, the amount of seagrass consumed by
manatees should have been mitigated by the re-growth of seagrass over
those three years.

However,
just like in the sea turtle study, the record-breaking manatee
population and corresponding increased seagrass consumption could have
put enough pressure on the seagrass to reduce its ability to recover
from unfavorable environmental conditions such as decreased salinity in
the Lagoon from record-breaking rainfall
caused by Tropical Storm Fay in 2008, the coldest winter on record in
2009-2010, drought conditions during 2009-2011 that caused land vegetation to die and decompose in the Lagoon, and the Superbloom
during 2011-2012.

The additional
pressure put on on the seagrass by an increased manatee population
coupled by weather extremes could have caused a tipping point where less
seagrass meant that other herbivores, with less grazing areas, put
additional pressure on the remaining seagrass which started the
spiraling loss of over 30,000 acres of seagrass beforethe Superbloom of March 2011.

Also,
seagrass absorbs and stores nitrogen and phosphorous. When manatees
consume seagrass, they then discharge that stored nitrogen and
phosphorous as waste which becomes free nutrients in the Lagoon. The
waste from increased manatee population could be the "internal flux of nutrients" that the Superbloom Investigation hypothesized. Manatee waste, disturbed by severe weather in late March 2011,
could also explain why the Superbloom occurred near Kennedy Space
Center where there are sparse populations and military-restricted
waterways.

The manatees' population comeback resulted in another extraordinary event in recent years.
Residents in Vero Beach witnessed the full extent of the sea cows'
voracious appetites' end product in 2009when a mile-long stretch of
manatee fecal matter closed area beaches.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve lived along beaches all my
life,” beach-goer Bill Becker told TCPalm. “It
was disgusting, but mystifying. It looked like Great Dane poop all along
the beach.”